"Okay, you go!" Mu Jiaojiao said.

Cui Pu was full of dissatisfaction. "You ......"

"Do you want me to pack your luggage for you?" Mu Jiaojiao smiled at him, "However, just go there, and it will take a day at most to go back and forth, so you don't need to bring your luggage, right?" I think it's more practical for me to prepare some food for you." ”

Cui Pu looked at her blankly. "Aren't you angry?"

"Aren't you so angry? If I were to be angry, I would have been by you. Mu Jiaojiao shook her head and said, "The elders all say that marrying a chicken is a chicken and a dog is a dog." Since I'm married to you, no matter what you have to do, I can only do it with you. Anyway, the worst result is that you lose your position, let's drag our family back to Chang'an and continue to open a medical clinic to sell medicine, and this day is not impossible. I don't care!"

"You...... What a good lady for me!" Cui Pu was overjoyed and hurriedly hugged her tightly.

Mu Jiaojiao hurriedly pushed him: "Be careful, watch out for the child!"

"Yes, yes, there are children!" Cui Pu hurriedly relaxed his arms, but he couldn't help but hug her and kiss her several times before saying, "I knew that you were my virtuous helper." No matter what I do, you will fully support me!"

"Don't talk nonsense, you better hurry up and go to Tianchang County to have a look!" He didn't know how much he had said this kind of thing over the years, and Mu Jiaojiao was tired of hearing it, so he urged him directly.

Cui Pu also knew that the situation was urgent and he was not allowed to delay any longer, so he hurriedly nodded: "Okay, I'll go." You can stay at home and raise your baby with peace of mind. Don't get excited no matter what you hear, I'm sure I'll be fine!"

"Don't worry. This Yangzhou is also your territory, if anyone tells you that something happened to you here, I will be stupid to believe it. Mu Jiaojiao shook her head with a smile.

Cui Pu was relieved. But he still told her a lot of things, and then he took someone to ride his horse in the direction of Tianchang County.

The group hurried up, but it took more than an hour to arrive in Tianchang County.

As soon as he entered the city gate, Cui Pu saw that the people who came to hand over the grain had already lined up at the gate of the county government. In the past, when Cui Pu was here, all he saw was people pushing carts and carrying burdens, happily discussing the harvest of the year. But now, all the people in the team were depressed, their faces were full of worry, and they were not even interested in talking.

It seems that the situation here is already serious.

Cui Pu's heart sank fiercely, so he rode his horse and whipped again, and drove quickly to the gate of the county office.

When he was about to arrive at the county office of Tianchang County, he turned over and dismounted, threw the reins back, and walked quickly into the crowd.

I happened to see a common man walking out with an empty basket, and someone immediately surrounded him and asked, "How is it?"

The man shook his head and sighed, "It's not enough, it's still ten stones." ”

"Ten stones!"

There was an exclamation from the crowd.

One stone is equal to ten buckets, which is equal to one hundred liters. Ten stone of grain is 1,000 liters, which is almost the ration of an ordinary family of a few people for a year and a half! How much ration the common people have been able to save after a year's hard work has now been deprived of most of it. Where are they requisitioning grain? They are simply snatching food from other people's mouths and forcing people to die!

Not to mention that the people were panicked, even Cui Pu couldn't help but be angry when he heard this.

Before the words fell, a man with a fierce face came over and yelled angrily: "What is the noise, what is the noise? I don't know if there are nobles resting over there? You are so chattering, if you make trouble with the nobles, the nobles are in a bad mood, and you don't even know how to die! Don't you hurry up and shut up for me!"

The people hurriedly shut their mouths. The man snorted lightly, picked up the roster and read: "Liu Qi of Liujia Village, it's your turn!"

The person whose name was called resigned himself pushed the cart forward. After struggling to unload all the food on the car, he smiled at the person sitting on the recliner in front of him and said, "Official, this is the tax that my family should pay this year, a total of twelve stones, please count it." ”

The man didn't even raise his eyelids, but said slowly: "Isn't your Liujia Village the first place to start growing sweet potatoes? And it is said that every year the sweet potato yield in your village is the highest in the whole Yangzhou Prefecture." But how is it that now, you have only handed over so little food?"

"If you go back to the official, how much grain to pay per mu of land is already stipulated by the government, and we all do things according to the rules. Liu Qi whispered.

The man's eyes immediately widened: "What do you mean by that? Don't you scold us for being unruly? Do you still want to say that we are pretending to be public and deliberately depriving you of your rations?"

Aren't you? You're doing this right now, okay?

The people were screaming in their hearts, but they didn't dare to say anything. Liu Qi also hurriedly laughed: "The little one doesn't dare, the little one doesn't mean this! Please forgive me, the little one, a poor person, has never studied, can't speak, makes you angry, it's all small wrong, and the small one admits his mistake to you!"

As he spoke, he slapped himself in the face a few times.

The man was finally satisfied, so he closed his eyes again: "Forget it, for the sake of your good attitude of admitting your mistakes, I won't worry about you too much." Stand by first, and I will have them see if there are twelve stones of grain you have handed over. ”

Liu Qi hurriedly stepped aside. Then I saw two men with big scales and three thick men coming over. It's just that they don't directly weigh the grain, but come up and kick it!

Kicked all the more than a dozen baskets to the ground, and poured out most of the grain in the baskets, and then they slowly picked up a basket and began to weigh it. One side of the scale, the other side shouted: "The first basket, three liters, the second basket, two and a half liters! The third basket ......."

As the numbers continued one by one, not to mention that Liu Qi's face became more and more ugly, Cui Pu's heart also sank heavily.

It was easy to wait until all the twelve baskets were weighed, and the person in charge of recording did the math and said, "A total of thirty-six liters, less than four stones!"

The talent on the recliner slowly opened his eyes again: "Didn't you say that it was good for twelve stones? Why is it only so much now? You are not honest as a farmer, you look at how short you are of two catties! If you go to sell vegetables, then I don't know how many people will be cheated by you!"

Liu Qi knelt down with a plop: "Official, no! The little one specially pushed twelve baskets over this time, and one stone of grain in each basket adds up to exactly twelve stones! Even if there is a slight difference, it is impossible to be as bad as seven or eight stones!"

"What, do you mean we wronged you?" or do you mean our scales aren't accurate?" the man sneered.

He's a good talker. Liu Qi is an ordinary person, dare to say that the officials have wronged him? It's not that he doesn't want to live anymore! As for saying that the scales are inaccurate, it is even more of a joke. There was indeed only a little grain in the basket, for the big head had already been kicked out by them, and was now lying on the ground! How much weight could this little thing at the bottom of the basket they weighed?

Liu Qi's mouth moved, but he didn't know what to say.

The man waved his hand again, and said with a glattery face: "Forget it, I'm busy, don't worry about you alone." I'll give you another chance, hurry back and pull another cart of grain, fill the gap, and we'll act as if nothing happened!"

Liu Qi opened his mouth and was about to speak, when the man glared at him again: "What, you want to rebel?"

Liu Qi immediately drooped his head.

The hats of rebellion have been buttoned off, how dare he refute them?

Seeing that he obediently pushed the cart away, the man snorted again: "It's really a poor mountain and a bad water, I came to this place today to see it!"

This person is so shameless! He has so exploited the blood and sweat of the people, but he still does not spare people, and he has put countless big hats on people's heads.

The people couldn't help but buzz in a low voice, and Cui Pu was also angry.

And Liu Qi had just walked a few steps away, and when he heard this, he immediately turned around: "I'm not Diao Min!"

"Yo, do you really want to rebel?" The man suddenly jumped up and strode to Liu Qi, with a wicked smile on his face that made people tremble.

Liu Qi also had a hint of fear in his eyes. But immediately, he still raised his head: "Cui Xianzun...... No, Governor Cui said that we are all honest people, and we are the cornerstone of the New Tang Dynasty. Over the years, we have contributed a lot to the New Tang Dynasty, and even the saints have to thank us!"

"Ha, Governor Cui? What he said is a piece of? Believe it or not, now I will beat you Diao Min to death here, and no one dares to say a word! And your Governor Cui...... Hehe, even if he knew, he would only sigh at most. Diao people like you, there are not 10,000 but thousands in the world, and it is not a pity to die one!"

"You are talking nonsense! Governor Cui will not be like this, he cares about our people the most. No matter what happens to us, he will be the first to stand up for us. If he knew what you were doing, then he would definitely not sit idly by!"

"Ridiculous. At this time, you are still delusional! Okay, I'll let you and you people take a good look at whether your Cui Governor's Mansion will come to stand up for you this time!"

The man sneered, stretched his hand back, and immediately someone sent a wooden stick more than three feet long. On the stick, you can clearly see the steel wires wrapped in strips, reflecting a dazzling cold light in the sun.

This thing hurts a lot more when it hits a person than an ordinary stick!

Seeing this, Liu Qi's body shrank for a moment.

The man found out about his reaction, so he lifted the corners of his lips and deliberately shook the stick back and forth: "Now, as long as you kneel down and slap yourself ten times, and then say a hundred times, 'I was wrong, please grandpa you let go of your grandson', grandpa, I will let you go, or do you act as if nothing happened, how about it?"

Liu Qi's eyes flickered a few times, but in the end he chose to raise his head again: "I don't! Governor Cui will definitely come to give us a head, definitely!"

"Okay, toast and don't eat and drink, it seems that I won't teach you a lesson today, you don't know who is your real master!" The man immediately looked cold, waved his stick and hit him.

The fierce offensive carried the sound of whirring wind, which made people's faces hurt. Liu Qi subconsciously closed his eyes.

However, the offensive suddenly stopped, and the expected pain did not occur.

He slowly opened his eyes, and when he saw the person standing in front of him, he immediately shouted happily: "Cui Zhifu!"

Cui Pu grabbed the stick and looked coldly at the arrogant man in front of him: "This mansion is here." Now, tell me who is their master in this place?"

The man had seen Cui Pu in Wei's Restaurant that day, but only from a distance. With his identity, he is not qualified to sit down and drink with Cui Pu. So now he recognized the identity of the person in front of him at a glance.

His heart froze, and he quickly raised a smile: "Governor Cui, why are you here? Even if you are here, you shouldn't have come to this place! The sun is big outside, and the sun is poisonous, what if the sun hits you? Our grain chief is in the county office, why don't you go in and sit and talk with him?"

While talking, he quietly glanced at the people around him, and immediately someone pulled out his legs and ran into the county office.

Cui Pu found out, but he only snorted lightly, and said: "This mansion just had a whim, come over to see how the progress of the grain collection is." But I didn't expect that as soon as this government arrived here, I saw you beating and scolding the people of this province, what is going on? You collect grain and collect grain, why do you want to fight with the people?"

As he spoke, he looked at Liu Qi's face again: "What's the matter, before this mansion came over, you had already had a fight?"

The man's face turned pale, and he hurriedly smiled again: "Prefect, you really blame us! Actually, it is this Diao Min, who is shoddy and fills more with less, and even though he only has less than half a stone of grain, he actually dares to pretend to be a stone to pay for it! We have come down to collect grain on behalf of the saints, and we must strictly control the quantity and quality of grain. Since it is found that it is wrong, it is natural to severely punish it. Otherwise, if you want to learn from others, then you have to do it? Those nobles in Chang'an City, as well as the soldiers who are going out on the expedition, are all waiting for these rice grains to fill their stomachs!"

Not bad, really good. One set in front of the face and one set on the back, this person really learned Li Linfu's skills. It's a pity that the technology is still a little worse, not perfect enough.

Cui Pu smiled lightly: "Is that so? But when the prefecture was the magistrate here in the past, why didn't it encounter such a thing? Every time the prefecture handed over the rice grain, no one ever said that the quantity and quality were wrong. ”

"Isn't that what it used to be? people's hearts always change......" the man said, his eyes looking left and right, and it was clear that he couldn't make it anymore.

After a short meeting, I saw Wan Tianci and his party running out of the government in a hurry.

"Governor Cui, you can be regarded as coming! I haven't seen you these days, I'm thinking about it! Come on, let's hurry in and sit down, and then ask the cook in this county government to sit on a table of good dishes and serve us wine! We are all people with status, why stand here and worry about these small things as big as sesame seeds? There are enough things here, and they will handle everything properly!" Wan Tianci stepped forward and pulled Cui Pu to drag people away.

This is called simple and crude.

As long as he follows him in, is he announcing to the people that he Cui Pu has been in the same stream as this person, and the people have quickly accepted the reality and honestly endured this harsh exploitation?

Cui Pu sneered and shook him off: "If you want to go to Wanliang Chang, you can go yourself! This government will stand here today and take a good look at how the people of Chang County have been cheated and deceived and evaded taxes this day! As long as one case is discovered, this government will definitely punish it severely!"